FALLS CHURCH, Va. – The Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) today announced that it has released its Fiscal Year (FY) 2013 Statistics Yearbook. As announced on its website on October 1, 2013, EOIR has been working to enhance its external data reporting by changing the way it analyzes and reports its data. The new statistical methodology is featured in the FY 2013 Statistics Yearbook, an annual compilation of data that examines respondents' cases by nationality, language, and disposition, and provides detailed information surrounding asylum cases.

In September 2011, EOIR convened an internal data working group to evaluate the collection and analysis of data and to assist in EOIR's annual effort to improve the agency's most significant data report. The conclusions of that working group were consistent with recommendations from the Department of Justice's Office of Inspector General in October 2012.

"Our new methodology will allow us to be more responsive to external statistics requests and to provide more transparency into EOIR's daily operations," said EOIR Director Juan P. Osuna. "These changes will make the FY 2013 Statistics Yearbook an even more useful tool than in years past."

The new statistical methodology revises the manner in which matters received and completed at EOIR are counted so that that the number of new receipts and initial case completions will provide as close an approximation as possible to the number of new individuals coming into EOIR immigration courts, and the number of motions and bonds will show additional work in existing cases.

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The Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) is an agency within the Department of Justice. Under delegated authority from the Attorney General, immigration judges and the Board of Immigration Appeals interpret and adjudicate immigration cases according to United States immigration laws. EOIR’s immigration judges conduct administrative court proceedings in immigration courts located throughout the nation. They determine whether foreign-born individuals—whom the Department of Homeland Security charges with violating immigration law—should be ordered removed from the United States or should be granted relief from removal and be permitted to remain in this country. The Board of Immigration Appeals primarily reviews appeals of decisions by immigration judges. EOIR’s Office of the Chief Administrative Hearing Officer adjudicates immigration-related employment cases. EOIR is committed to ensuring fairness in all of the cases it adjudicates.